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The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy
May 19, 2007 Thinking is Sorting The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy May 19, 2007
Thinking is Sorting
One of my favorite quotes is "All thinking is sorting," from the
literary critic I.A. Richards. Spring puts many of us on a
cleaning tear, and brings out the love/hate relationship so many of
us have with sorting. It would be tempting just to throw
everything out in those growing piles or take a backhoe to those
cluttered spots, but we can't - there's a treasure or two in there,
and we saved that stuff in that jumble for a reason.
Nowhere does the "thinking is sorting" mantra play out more than in
classroom libraries. We can't look at libraries without thinking
about how we organize information, what catches our eye, the
difference between what appeals to us and what appeals to the kids,
the sometimes fine line between trash reading and a book that
builds essential skills...
This week and next we'll be featuring ideas for reorganizing
classroom libraries. This is a great time of year for thinking
about what's worked all year long in how books are organized and
displayed in classrooms, and which books are ready to be weeded
out of bins and shelves. We've got some suggestions for end of
the year activities with students that not only enlist their help
in cleaning up the library, but also in reflecting as a community
about what makes a book engaging. Enjoy!
Brenda Power Editor, Choice Literacy
***Free for All***
From the Choice Literacy Archives, Gayle Brand in "Coaching Moment"
helps a colleague sort through and organize her classroom library,
and discovers the process is a wonderful catalyst for talking about
reading instruction in an informal, natural setting:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/87.cfm
This book-sorting activity for students from the IRA/NCTE
ReadWriteThink forum is a thoughtful, hands-on suggestion for
enlisting students to think through what categories and tubs for
books in your classroom make sense. It also provides any teacher
with insight into what students notice about books as they make
their selections:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=145
Thanks for your wonderful response to Choice Literacy's summer
workshop slate! The Becoming a Literacy Coach event with Jennifer
Allen is now SOLD OUT at the Portland, Oregon location, and only a
handful of seats remain at the Columbus, Ohio and Portland, Maine
locations. Space is available for all other events, but they are
filling rapidly. For registration details on all available events,
please click on the link below. We hope to see you this summer:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department22.cfm ***For Members Only***
Shari Frost sorts through the changing world of audio books, and
their resurgence in popularity with smaller, cheaper, and trendier
MP3 players. In "More Than Listening Centers," she shares some of
the innovative ways literacy coaches and teachers in her network
are using audio books incorporating newer technologies. Shari's
feature article also includes a "Top 10" list of audio books for
students:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/351.cfm
The Sisters (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) help Carrie, a second
year teacher, begin to reorganize her library around bins with
themes. This short time-lapse video shows the sorting process, and
includes a debrief session where bin placement according to traffic
and interest is discussed:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/353.cfm
Katie DiCesare writes about how children can be enlisted to help in
creating and organizing book bins in libraries. But in Katie's
classroom, the process of matching books to children begins with
"My Stack" - her pile of books that changes daily, linking
individual children and texts of interest. "My Stack" guides
instruction all day long:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/352.cfm
From the Choice Literacy Archives, one of the most popular
features early last fall was the exchange between Aimee Buckner and
Franki Sibberson on organizing libraries for intermediate readers:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/124.cfm
That's all for this week!
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